The Stranger I Married

ETA: I realize now that the reason the age thing struck me as so “off” is because I quite often read May/December romances, where the heroine is much, MUCH younger than the hero in a Historical setting. That sort of pairing seems quite common back then, so it was a bit startling to have so much emphasis put on a mere four years, lol. It appears we have a double standard. (what else is new?!) Anyway, I'll admit I don't often read about the woman being older, as I prefer the opposite, so I will defer to the author here. ;-D

Historical Erotic Romance is my favorite genre, so I was excited to start this one. I had read Ask For It by the same author, which is SUPER hot, so I expected this to be the same.

Have to say, I was a tiny bit disappointed. Yes, there is sex and it's quite explicit, there just wasn't as much of it as I'd expected. Perhaps the scenes there were just weren't long enough. Yeah, that could be it. I like me some long drawn-out lovin', now. ;-D And again, I did go into it with a certain mindset having already read Ask For It.

That aside, there was one minor annoyance that drove me a bit crazy. Throughout the book, there is constant mention of how Isabel is older than Gray. At one point she is shocked by her strong reaction to him physically, thinking herself past the point of such desire...there's several mentions of her possibly being too old to bear children...

Isabel is FOUR years older than Grayson. FOUR. For the majority of the book, he's 26 and she's 30. Sorry, but I thought that such a minor age difference as not to merit all the brouhaha. I know women got married really young back then, and in fact, if you weren't married by your early twenties you were considered an old maid. I get that. I guess I still think there should've been a slightly larger age gap between them for the big fuss. Like 7-10 years. That would have made it more believable, imo.

Isabel and Grayson were both very likable characters, and I did enjoy the rocky path they took from strangers to lovers, and finally to true companions who were desperately in love. They both had their reasons for keeping their distance at first, so it takes them awhile to get there. (Otherwise, there'd be no book, right?) ;-)

There was a side story with Isabel's brother Rhys and a charming girl named Abby that I REALLY loved. I adored this couple so much I wish they could've had their own story!

To sum it up, I enjoyed this book, but it's not one of my absolute favorites. Definitely worth a read, though!